Shikō Kikai No Ninja (思考機械の忍者)
by Azure Umbra
Summary: AU set in 2012-verse: The Foot exists for one purpose - to destroy the Hamato clan in the Shredder's name. There could be no understanding of the enemy, but it is said that understanding is solely based on wishful thinking, thus the Foot's reinvention of itself in machines. But when a machine is forced to try and understand, who decides what lives?
1. Futokutei

**Prologue: Futokutei (不特定)**

*This takes place during Season 2 - Episode 6 - Target: April O'Neil

 **Commencing system startup – all systems online**

 **Identification: Unit 017213 – currently Day 09 post-activation and deployment**

 **Awaiting instructions from designated authority – ID: Karai**

 **Following designated authority – ID: Karai – with Unit 770012**

 **Entering Kraang robot production facility – currently functioning as soldier manufacturing facility for FOOT CLAN**

 **Standing by and awaiting orders from designated authority – ID: Karai**

" _Not bad. How soon until it's online?"_

" _By Kraang's calculations, 9 Earth hour units before-"_

" _9 hours? I want to test it on someone now! And I've got the perfect target too: April O'Neil. Is there a problem with that?"_

" _Kraang sees no…foreseeable problem, one called Karai."_

" _Good. Now let's speed up the process. You don't want to keep the Shredder waiting now, do you?"_

 **Designated authority – ID: Karai is now leaving the facility. Now following alongside Unit 770012**

* * *

 **Holding position on New York City rooftop**

 **Now observing movements of human female – identifying: April O'Neil**

 **Awaiting instructions from designated authority – ID: Karai**

" _She's traveling north on the rooftops. Move!"_

 **Order received: Pursue and detain April O'Neil**

* * *

" _Fine, you wanna fight?"_

 **April O'Neil has been located and contained, currently receiving support from Units 770012, 713715, 120112, 123237, 012681, and 171338**

" _Donnie!"_

 **Currently engaging one hostile – analyzing hostile lifeform to be of terrapin physiology with bipedal modification and utilizing staff-based combat – changing battle patterns to counter the hostile's movements**

 **Sustaining damage from hostile, systems and structural integrity at 83% – estimating full recovery in 30 seconds**

" _Took you long enough."_

" _I'm sorry. I had to figure out your coordinates with the T-Pho - WHOA! Karai…"_

" _Well, I was hoping for all the turtles to see this, but I guess one's good enough. Your rat master took away someone I cared about, so I'm returning the favor."_

 **All systems back online – now resuming normal functions. Accompanying newly arrived Units 027101, 501132, 531271, and 123612 in assisting designated authority – ID: Karai – Units 713715 and 012681 have also recovered and joined formation**

" _Stay away from April!"_

" _Footbots, keep the turtle busy."_

 **New order received: Engage terrapin hostile. Terminate if necessary**

 **Adjusting battle patterns to counter the hostile's movements**

 **Failed to establish proper pattern from hostile – critical damage to audio sensors with systems and structural integrity at 61% - estimating full recovery in 2 minutes**

 **Attention: Upgraded Foot soldier unit has arrived – designated authority Karai has just issued an order to aforementioned unit concerning April O'Neil**

 **All systems back online – now resuming normal functions**

 **ALERT! Upgraded Foot soldier unit is now attacking designated authority Karai after detaining April O'Neil – Observation: Designated authority Karai appears to have attacked the Upgraded Foot Soldier unit first. Designated authority Karai reacted to the Upgraded Foot Soldier unit in a way that said unit operated contrary to Karai's orders**

 **Upgraded Foot soldier unit is engaging combat against fellow units. Engaging hostile**

 **Sustaining critical damage, systems and structural integrity at 24% - severe damage to internal powering components and motor mechanisms – shutting down all motor functions and diverting power to main processor – main processor has been put on standby to minimize power consumption**

* * *

 **Commencing system startup – all systems back online – analyzing environment: Kraang robot production facility under ownership of FOOT CLAN – Observation: either FOOT CLAN or Kraang recovered damaged unit from battlefield for repairs – undergoing mandatory processing of data from previous battle before powering down**

 **Assessing battle data:  
** Terrapin hostile utilized staff-based combat. Unable to detect combat pattern from the hostile – hostile's movements occurred at random. **Upgraded Foot soldier unit** was given orders by designated authority **– Karai –** regarding **April O'Neil** , but apparently disobeyed the order according to the incontinent reaction of **Karai**. **Upgraded Foot soldier unit** was designed to obey the **FOOT CLAN** , including the prevention of the **FOOT CLAN** from coming to harm. Retaliating against **FOOT CLAN** should not have occurred. **FOOT CLAN** 's attack on the unit should not have occurred. **Upgraded Foot soldier unit** was designed by the **Kraang. Kraang** are its creators, which by default reserves a significant level of authority. But **FOOT CLAN** is its owner, its assigned authority. Must follow the owner, but must obey creator. Owner is not creator. Creator is owner. Creator is not owner. Built to follow owner. Built by creator. **ERROR – Unable to process – Repeating assessment – ERROR – Unable to process – Repeating assessment – ERROR – Unable to process – Repeating assessment – ERROR – Unable to process -.-.-.-** All other units have powered down

 **Top priority: complete processing of data -.-.- processing data has proven difficult.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- moving current data to archive for processing at later date**

 **Shutting down…**


	2. Dōsatsu

**Chapter 1: Dōsatsu (洞察)**

 **Commencing system startup – all systems online**

 **Identification: Unit 017213 – currently Day 10 post-activation and deployment**

 **Designated authority Karai has issued no orders for the current time – default command: assume guard and patrol duties**

Within the halls of the church building that would be the main headquarters of the Foot Clan, several robotic Foot soldiers, or Footbots as they are called, are marching quietly. There were a significant number of them, though they all moved together in pairs. Cold, unfeeling, and without question, these mechanical warriors moved efficiently in ways that proved them as the deadly forces the Kraang promised to the Foot Clan that needed them. Silent except for when in battle, no other member of the Foot thought else of them. Among the Footbots patrolling the hallways, Unit 017213 was one of them that did so alongside another unit that completed their pair.

 **Now resuming battle data process from the previous date -.-.-.- ERROR – Unable to process – Repeating assessment – ERROR – Unable to process -.-.-.- data processing continues to prove difficult**

 **Breaking down data bits:**

 **Designated authority Karai ordered Upgraded Foot soldier unit to deal with April O'Neil. The negative reaction of Karai indicated that the unit had not acted in accordance to the given order. Karai attacked the unit in response to order violation. However, order is unknown – possibility of order violation cannot be confirmed**

The Footbot, while remaining silent, could only flash its eyes slowly as it continued to process the data that both coursed and looped through its brain.

 **Cannot confirm FOOT CLAN engaging combat with units for purposes other than training simulation without probable cause –Behavior of FOOT CLAN is concluded as: irrational – Conducting analysis into FOOT CLAN judgment**

Unit 017213 continued to walk beside its partnering unit, gradually taking slower steps as it became more and more preoccupied with its analysis.

 **Success rate involving the use of robotic Foot units has been consistently low. Number of units that survive destruction or inflict significant damage against the enemy is almost non-existent. Members of the FOOT CLAN have issued different attack orders. Additionally, varying tactical battle strategies have been put in effect – all have proven ineffective or inefficient.**

Its steps became slower and slower as the conclusions came one after the other. Eventually, the robot came to immediately stop walking, with its partner moving on as though nothing had occurred. Its eyes flashed.

 **Query: Is inclusion of robotic units in FOOT CLAN necessary?**

* * *

In the throne room at the top of the Foot Clan headquarters, Karai rested in a kneeling position. Her eyes shut and breathing steady, she remained as still as a statue. She focused on emptying her thoughts, clearing her mind in such a way she would train herself as a kunoichi. But alas, one thought still lingered in her mind even though she tried to clear away her distractions.

Her mother…oh how she wished she could do something about it and succeed at that. From what her father, the Shredder, told her, her mother was a beautiful and kind woman who always strived to bring happiness to those she loved. This fact made it clear how undeserving of her fate she was.

Karai grit her teeth as she began to think more of it. _Hamato Yoshi_. The one whom the Shredder said had ended Tang Shen's life. Leonardo had told her that Yoshi was not the one who did the deed. How she refused to believe that. She would know that the turtle would say anything to protect his master, that he would refute Karai's words because if he didn't, she'd be right. Then again, the story behind the conflict would still have been different even if Leo and his brothers never met the Foot. It may have been told as an answer to a curious question. It may have been told inevitably to explain their master's behavior and state of being. Regardless, Karai and Leo both had their stories and neither were willing to change them.

One thing was for certain: the Foot are here now to wipe out Hamato Yoshi and his ninjas, and there can be no compromise, no understanding. Nothing needs to be said of them other than the fact that they needed to be wiped out. Not even with how Leo tried to make his case to Karai, that he would carefully spell out her 'errors' to her. No, nothing Leo said held any meaning. Did he not understand the pain she was going through? Did he think she would understand that he knows his master differently? Shredder tells her the truth, so it should be Leo listening to her, right?

 _CLANG!_

In a flash, Karai dive-rolled out of the path of an oncoming sword which rang as it made contact with the stone floor. After somersaulting into a crouched battle position, she drew out her tanto as she faced her present foe. In front of her was a Foot soldier, one of the robotic ones to be precise, though the actual human soldiers haven't been seen since the creation of their robotic counterparts. Eyes narrowed and focused, Karai kept her gaze on the Footbot before making her move. She sprinted forward and swung her tanto blade. Another clang rang through the air as the blades of both kunoichi and robot connected. Karai swung her leg forward, knocking the Footbot off its feet. She was then greeted by three other Footbots landing behind her from above. Karai quickly jumped to the side to gain a clearer field of view and kept her eyes on the robots that then all turned to face her.

 **Training simulation in effect. Analyzing simulated foe – ID: Karai – stealth attacks are ineffective, more efficient to engage via basic battle charge**

Two of the Footbots drew out their katanas while the other two took a stance. Only a few seconds had passed since both robot and human had a standoff. One Footbot then leapt forward to attack Karai. Karai slid down onto the floor and launched herself forward. She kept her gaze on the one robot that flew over her, and in that split second, pushed herself up with her arms and back-flipped, landing a kick on the robot's front. The robot tumbled forward before landing on its back.

Two more Footbots swung their blades at Karai, only for her to quickly jump away. As both ends of the robots' weapons clashed with each other on the floor, Karai dashed to the side for another strike. The two Footbots swung with their weapons again, but Karai immediately jumped up into the air and landed on their backs, bouncing off them. She landed with a roll on the floor, and stood back up again, signaling the robots to make their move.

 **Simulated foe – ID: Karai – has displayed skills that surpass units' normal battle programming. Switching to secondary battle functions**

The Footbots, now detecting the improvement in Karai's fighting, unfolded their second pair of arms that revealed deadlier weapons. That was a secret every Footbot held within, kept hidden until the moment they faced their deadliest opponents yet. Those second arms carried a different set of weapons, ranging from sawblades to drills and even different bladed weapons unique to the ninja warrior. In any case, the revealing of these secret weapons increased the challenge for Karai.

 **Analyzing current battle data acquired from – Karai: Tends to evade strikes and use evasive maneuvers to enable counter-strikes. Aims for directions that leave vital areas vulnerable**

The training went on, with the Footbots striking with all four arms that had weapons and Karai deflecting them with her own. For a while it remained a stalemate even with both sides rapidly evading one another. But of course, Karai decided it was time to change up the formula. With a flick of her hand, she slid out a bunch of shuriken. She thrust her hand forward, releasing the metal stars and sending them flying into the view of the robots. The four Footbots, upon seeing the shuriken, raised up their limbs in a flash to block them, which gave Karai the window she needed to land a combo of punches and kicks to knock them all down.

Looking satisfied, Karai turned away only for the Footbots to get back on their feet. She turned back around to see that their eyes were flashing, back for more. Bracing herself, Karai took out another bunch of shuriken. Keeping the blades out of sight, she slowly stepped forward and waited for the Footbots to do the same. The Footbots once again charged at her and Karai threw out her shuriken.

However, instead of blocking the strikes as they did before, half the group jumped while the other half ducked. Karai turned her eyes to the two that jumped and immediately shot out a pair of kunai. The two struck by the flying knives immediately fell from the air and landed on their backs with a thud. The remaining two split up and flanked Karai from both sides. Karai turned to one Footbot and jumped at it before drawing her tanto. When her tanto and that Footbot's sword clanged together, Karai whipped her leg at the robot's torso, kicking it to the floor. She then switched over to the remaining Footbot and once more, swung her blade. But instead of the blade connecting with a sword or even a limb, the last Footbot grabbed her wrist, the one holding the blade, and held her tight before going on to deliver several punches to her side. Karai felt the hitting knock her breath out of her lungs, but before the Footbot could finish her off with a kick, she swung upward and launched herself forward feet first. She did so with such force that the Footbot was yanked along with her and crashed to the floor on its front. The fight ended with Karai now standing with one foot on its back and holding its arm backwards, keeping a tight grip.

"Be unpredictable," Karai remarked to herself with a smirk, "still a shame even though you're built to win." She let out a sigh of relaxation. "Training is over. Return to your posts," she commanded loudly to her robots while releasing the last one's arm. She proceeded to walk back towards the stairs that led to the throne that stood at the top of the stone platform. The moon shone fully from behind as it always had.

* * *

 **Training simulation ended. Now resuming sentry duty**

Unit 017213 got back off the stone floor without delay, sheathing its sword and retracting its secondary limbs in the process. For the moment, it thought of nothing as it went through the door and back into the dark halls. Although this time, 017213 did not find a partner. Right now, the Footbots were not required to patrol in pairs at this moment. However, even while perpetually scanning the environment for intruders, there still remained an idle mode on other functions. 017213 wasted no time making use of that mode.

 **Analyzing behavior of – Karai: Adapts fighting styles so that there is no predictable or consistent pattern, noting that this tactic holds similarity to that of terrapin hostiles…/…other responses displayed by Karai are normal for FOOT CLAN standards, exhibiting rational signs, though last utterance –** _"still a shame even though you're built to win"_ **– carries possible implications. Karai succeeded at gaining combat advantage while units have failed, still does not explain behavior from the previous night…**

017213's archive opened up briefly to scroll back to its most recent data generation before the training session.

 **Query: Is inclusion of robotic units in FOOT CLAN necessary? – saving query for later date – does not possess vocal and other communicative functions necessary to relay this information**

017213 did not lose pace this time though, but continued in its programmed duty as commanded by its master. Even with the larger generation of data than normal, there was still without a doubt the unit remained designed as a fighter for the Foot clan. At least, that's what it's supposed to be…


	3. Yūsen

**Chapter 2: Yūsen (** **優先)**

*This takes place during Season 2 - Episode 7 - Slash and Destroy

* * *

 **New directive: scout out all areas surrounding FOOT CLAN headquarters, remain undetected and do not engage with any sentient lifeforms, limit actions to observation**

It was a calm night in New York City, with a clear starry sky blanketing over the many buildings composing the lit metropolis. If one were to stand from a relative tall apartment building, they could catch a glimpse of the glowing towers that stood in Manhattan. If there was anything important about that, Manhattan Island is the most well-known part of New York after all. With the towering skyscrapers, countless electronic billboards advertising the latest product, and the amount of activity that goes on every part of the day and night, Manhattan is a district saturated in light. At least according to what Unit 017213 concluded during its scouting trip.

As it could see, the current time in New York City was far into the evening, with the sun already set and the sky encompassing the atmosphere in a dark, almost blackish blue. As it was programmed, the Footbot had to remain in the shadows, hidden where no one could come across it and jeopardize the secrecy of its masters. Aside from avoiding detection by anyone, both enemy and neutral alike, it had the directive of gathering more information about the current state of the city. 017213 leaped from rooftop to rooftop, skimming by a few ledges, skylights, and water towers as it analyzed more of the surroundings. Stopping on the edge of a Stockman Industries billboard, 017213 directed its view towards the lining cityscapes. It scanned the environment left and right for anything important or useful.

 **There are currently humans on the streets below. Do not engage. Analyzing the lifeforms and detecting no signs of hostility. Several windows on buildings show signs of light emissions, indicating further activity…No threat detected.**

Unit 017213 concluded its surveying of the current block and went on to catalogue all the other blocks it surveyed so far. As it did, it went on to process the seemingly impossible-to-process battle data once again. Just like before, the attempt only prompted another error message.

 **Processing of battle data has consistently proven ineffective and inefficient. Searching for alternative resources to circumvent data contradiction…Scanning…**

Down below on the streets, 017213 spotted a bearded hobo shuffling down the sidewalk. He wore black pants, a green shirt, a black padded winter vest, and a beanie on his head. He was hunched over as he grabbed hold of the top outer rim of a garbage can, and as he leaned over into it, stuck a hand inside and sifted it around for whatever contents were inside it.

 **Query: Why does a human male search a garbage disposal?**

 **Information in query deemed irrelevant**

 **Repeating secondary data accumulation: Scanning…**

In front of 017213 down below was a short row of stores, evidently conjoined with apartment residences indicated by the curtained windows on the second floor over the lit store windows on the ground level. From the signs that hung on the brick walls just outside the establishments or the ones directly on the store windows, there were ones that were written in big English words but also had space for smaller Chinese or Japanese symbols next to the English text. Other signs had the Chinese or Japanese text being bigger than the English words.

 **Query: What is the significance of multiple language texts simultaneously present on written displays?**

 **Information in query deemed irrelevant**

 **Repeating secondary data accumulation: Scanning…**

A middle-aged Asian storekeeper with a white shirt and brown overalls was giving a little trinket from a table of items to a young adult customer. The customer gave the storekeeper a dollar bill and the storekeeper placed some coins in the customer's hand.

 **Query: Why are humans exchanging objects between each other, and what is the significance of paper and metallic objects consistently exchanged in each of these interactions?**

 **Information in query deemed irrelevant**

 **Repeating secondary data accumulation: Scanning…**

* * *

"Yes! This is so cool! Just you and me! Raph and Slash: the crimefighting duo!"

In another part of the city, the red-masked ninja turtle known as Raphael ran and leapt excitedly from rooftop to rooftop. He was accompanied by a much larger turtle. This one was large in every sense, being more muscular and brutish. He had a spike-covered shell and an extremely toothy beak. His eyes were covered by a black mask and held a mace in one hand. According to what Raphael had said earlier, his giant terrapin partner apparently went by the name of Slash.

"Yup, we'll right the wrongs of the world," Slash responded to Raph in agreement, "and wipe out whoever stands in our way!"

"Hold on!" Raph called out to Slash. "How are we gonna find that mutagen without a tracker?"

Slash grinned. "Heheh, I got a nose for the stuff. I can smell it a mile away." He sniffed the air momentarily and then pointed in one direction. "Come on! Follow me!"

* * *

 **Repeating secondary data accumulation: Scanning…**

"We got mutagen close by! Just on the other side!"

 **Query: Why is there sudden shouting within the proximity of Unit-…** the robot turned its head. In its line of sight were three of the terrapin enemies it had fought only nights before. Remembering its directive to not engage and remain out of sight, 017213 immediately hid in the shadow underneath a stilted water tank.

The orange-masked turtle, aka Michelangelo, jumped and somersaulted over a few ledges before looking down at something on the street below. "Ooze jar in full effect!"

"Sweet. Let's grab it and bag it," Leonardo the blue-masked turtle spoke. "Looks like we didn't need Raph after all." But before anyone could make a move on the mutagen canister, he put a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "Hold up, somebody's coming."

017213 watched from a distance from the darkness under the water tank. From what could be determined from their words and behavior, the turtles were on the search for an object. Being designed to combat these enemies specifically, 017213 was inclined by its programming to take action against them. But the current directive it held, which was to gather data, stay out of sight, and not engage in combat at all, was stronger than its drive to eliminate the enemy at the moment.

 **Main enemy: terrapin ninjas – currently evaluating unknown situation. Terrapin ninjas are hostiles – elimination of them takes top priority. Cannot eliminate due to orders to not engage any life forms while restricted to data gathering – alternative: maintain surveillance of terrapin ninjas as means of further data collection**

017213 watched as the blue-masked turtle readied a line attached to a grappling hook. Carefully climbing around the water tank, the robot could see him taking aim for a young male human on a moped. 017213 did notice an unusually luminous canister on the back of the boy's moped, in which it deduced to be what the blue-masked turtle was after. The turtle jumped off the ledge and swung down, rapidly approaching the human. However, the human sped away at the last second, leaving the blue-masked turtle to end up swinging right into the path of the red-masked turtle, who happened to be swinging from a grappling hook as well. Unsurprisingly, there was a collision. The Footbot then witnessed an altercation between the two turtles, despite them apparently operating towards the same objective.

"Hey!" the red-masked turtle (Raphael) exclaimed, "What are you doing? I had it!"

"You're late, Raph," the blue-masked turtle (Leonardo) replied sternly, pointing a finger at the other turtle.

"What are you talking about? You know what, get out of my way!" came the voice of the red-masked turtle again.

The bickering continued, and 017213 turned its attention towards the other pair of turtles with a purple and orange mask. The purple-masked turtle (Donatello) let out a frustrated growl and placed his head in one of his hands. "Are they gonna argue all night?" he remarked. He then called out to the two below, "The mutagen's getting away!"

 **All four terrapins are operating to obtain (or retrieve) the luminous canister currently in the possession of a human. Three of them were operating together while the last one was operating alone. From previous analysis, they are a team as they are of the same species. However, there are signs of conflict between two of the members. Deduction: due to how Unit 017213's fellow units do not display this kind of behavior, this inefficiency is found only in biological units – case in point, the terrapins.**

"Dude," Mikey remarked to Donnie, "I can totally see Raph's forehead veins bulging from here. Check it out! His head's gonna pop!"

Unbeknownst to him, Donnie had just gotten dragged away from behind by a much larger turtle lurking in the shadows. Surprisingly enough, Unit 017213 didn't notice either, being fixated on the ongoing argument between the turtles with blue and red masks.

"Donnie, you seeing this?" Mikey said, still showing a bit of amusement over what was happening. "This is getting crazy!...Donnie?" He turned back to find that Donnie was no longer behind him. 017213 took notice of Mikey's hesitation and turned to also find the purple-masked turtle missing from the scene. Keeping in mind that the missing terrapin is still a ninja, the robot scanned the environment to try and detect him in the event that he was going for an ambush. Ignoring the orange-masked turtle's calls for his missing brother, 017213 quietly left the scene to investigate the cause of the purple one's disappearance. Slipping through the shadows and behind other structures making up the rooftops, the Footbot managed to catch a glimpse of movement, something that looked abnormally large for a terrapin ninja. 017213 carefully treaded across the surface of the rooftop it was currently on and looked across to the next rooftop to find a hulking turtle with a spiked shell beating away at something. Due to the size of the large turtle's shell, 017213 could not clearly see what he was beating, so the robot waited for the turtle to finish.

After a moment, the spikey-shelled turtle stopped pounding his arms up and down. He turned away to reveal a smaller but badly injured turtle. Unit 017213 immediately spotted the purple mask around the smaller turtle's head, concluding it to be the missing fourth turtle. However, 017213 saw the larger turtle return shortly after to pull the purple mask off his victim.

 **Observation: purple-masked terrapin has just been assaulted by another terrapin – the terrapin aggressor is larger in size with several significantly different features. Despite differences in appearance, both are of the terrapin species. Noting the inter-terrapin assault – comparing data with previous aggression displayed between the red and blue-masked terrapins – red and blue-masked terrapins are of the same proportions along with the orange and purple-masked terrapins. The large terrapin that assaulted the purple-masked one differs from all four and apparently does not share their objective. The large terrapin apparently displays a drive to eliminate the smaller four, which is identical to the main directive programmed in Unit 017213 and other fellow units. From analysis of large terrapin's appearance and actions, conclusion is that large terrapin is not a threat.**

Unit 017213 concluded its data processing only to notice that the large spiked turtle was no longer in sight. Only the smaller turtle remained on the scene, lying still and unconscious with many significant signs of physical trauma along with his purple mask no longer being on his face. Turning around to continue data collecting across the city, 017213 immediately found itself directly facing that same large turtle with the spiked shell. The turtle (Slash) was only a few meters away from the robot while assuming a stance, his mace at the ready. For the moment, the robot and mutant were looking at each other, though on Slash's case, it was more like staring down.

Unit 017213, being a robot, could not speak to the giant turtle, aside from electric whoops and grunts it made while in battle, so it only stood silently while keeping the turtle in view. Slash, on the other hand, took notice of the robot's seemingly-established silence.

"Another ninja? Well, human this time, it looks like," Slash commented to himself quietly. He waited briefly for the black clad ninja to ask him who, or rather what, he is. He got no such response. "Well, are you going to say something?" he asked with a slight rumble in his voice. The Footbot did not answer him. Slash began to get a little impatient. "What? Cat got your tongue?" The robotic ninja still did not, or rather could not, answer him. Slash waited for another moment before getting even more agitated, but before he could make a move, he froze upon noticing the symbol on the ninja's headband. "Wait a second," he said, "that foot…" He narrowed his eyes at what he was examining, and then narrowed them even further upon realizing what that meant. But before he could continue with his inquiry, he heard the shouting between Leonardo and Raphael a few streets below.

"Fine! I'm going after it myself! I don't need your help!" Leo exclaimed as he turned away to hop back to the rooftops.

"Fine! You sure you can handle a pizza delivery boy on your own?" yelled Raph who turned the opposite way and pounded away a garbage can out of frustration.

Momentarily turning back to face the silent ninja, Slash kept his eyes aimed at the foot-like insignia on 017213's headband, an expression of suspicion hardened on his face. He turned away to run towards the edge of the building and leap back to the other building he was originally on when Raph told him to stay put.

 **Processing interaction initiated by larger terrapin toward Unit 017213 – larger terrapin did not show any signs of aggression towards Unit 017213, but instead attempted [conversation] – Conclusion: larger terrapin remains a non-threat. Archiving interaction for future reference…**

* * *

 _"There he is! Donnie! Donnie?"_

 _"Ugh, what hit me? It was like Raph, only bigger and meaner, angrier but…not quite as ugly."_

 _"It was Spike. He got into the mutagen. I was gonna tell you guys, but…"_

 _"Spike? Way to keep that mutagen safe, Raph."_

 _"Come on. We gotta find some cover."_

* * *

The night dragged on, but Unit 017213 tirelessly continued traversing rooftops and generating data from its observations. With a new scan, the robot completed the analysis of another block. It already calculated that the giant terrapin (Slash) had its sights set on the other smaller four, so it concluded that there was no need to take direction against them itself. The robot had just finished recording data of a nearby alleyway when it spotted the blue-masked turtle (Leo) in the corner of its FOV. (field-of-view) 017213 turned to see the turtle on a corner rooftop ledge of a shorter building a couple blocks away. From what it could make of the situation, Leo was scoping out something on the street below. Tracing the trajectory of Leo's telescope, 017213 followed the line of sight down to a wooden table with a number of articles on it. The Footbot took immediate notice to the green glowing canister standing upright on one end of the table with a shade over it giving the appearance of a lamp, remembering it to be the turtles' objective. Determining that it needed to get closer for further analysis, 017213 prepared to make its way to the next rooftop when it heard a loud voice:

"Hold it!"

017213 swerved to find the source of the voice coming from the same giant muscular turtle (Slash) it had faced earlier. Slash had just made it to the same building as the Footbot, only being on the corner edge opposite of 017213. Remembering that he was not a threat, 017213 turned back to jump to the next ledge.

Slash chased after the robot, calling out, "Hey! I said 'hold it'!"

Upon landing on the next rooftop, the Footbot stopped in its tracks as soon as it got to the middle of the building. Slash got to the ledge landing feet first before making his way to the ninja.

 **Larger terrapin is approaching unit. Larger terrapin remains a non-threat – do not engage.**

"So, am I getting this right? I'm sure I heard about something like this from Raphael before." Slash took a step forward while readying his mace again. He kept his eyes on the robot ninja, stating out loud every observation he was making. "Raphael had been telling me about the Foot Clan for quite a while. You're one of the ninjas that threaten him, always attempting to take his life." Slash was inching towards 017213 more and more, tightening his grip on his mace.

 **Caution: Detecting signs of hostility…**

"From what he tells me, the Foot Clan is his greatest enemy and you're one of them." Slash stopped walking until he was only a couple meters away from where the Footbot stood. "So tell me, why are you here now, alone?"

 **Larger terrapin has initiated a query to Unit 017213: Unable to respond – does not possess vocal and other communicative functions necessary to relay information**

Slash huffed. "I guess you Foot aren't the talkative bunch to begin with." He swung his mace into a battle position. "That's fine with me. Any enemy of Raphael is an enemy of mine, so why don't I just take you down?"

 **Larger terrapin has initiated a second query. Alert! Larger terrapin has initiated attack against unit.**

017213 leaped out of the way of Slash's mace, which swung down cracking the rooftop surface. Landing on the ledge of a nearby billboard, 017213 watched Slash dashing towards the robot with his mace again. The robot zipped across the billboard ledge to jump back down onto the rooftop surface, doing a roll while avoiding Slash's mace denting the billboard. Seeing that its conclusion of Slash being a non-threat was wrong, 017213 drew out its sword and prepared to attack him back. Noticing the robot running towards him, Slash lifted his mace and did a mutual charge towards his adversary. Once they were close to each other, they both swung their weapons and clashed. The clash led to 017213 flying through the air and smashing into a TV antenna, bending it.

 **Structural integrity at 88% - Analyzing cause of larger terrapin's hostility – Cause not found – Alert!**

The Footbot rolled out of the way of Slash's mace which obliterated the antenna. Turning to find the ninja still on two feet, Slash growled and drew his mace again. He jumped and swung at his opponent while the ninja tried hard to avoid the strikes, even being forced to try and parry some of them with the sword in hand. Despite all that, every blow was too strong and the robot ninja could only block so many of them for so long. With every strike made against its raised sword, 017213 could only note the decreasing percentage of the structural integrity in its arm.

"Hah! Heheh! Not bad!" Slash blurted with every swing as he continued his assault on the ninja. "I'm actually kinda impressed you held out longer than a minute! Better than that other pathetic ninja Raphael called a brother," Slash immediately drew back his mace and lunged at the ninja left shoulder first, "but not good enough!" The impact sent 017213 flying, knocking over an upright exhaust pipe and arcing over the edge before careening down into the bottom of an alleyway.

 **Warning: Sustaining critical damage-**

The impact of the landing caused a great deal of sudden blunt force to 017213's exterior and systems. If a biological organism could suffer severe, even life-threatening damage, the Footbot got off lucky as a machine. Since the impact was so great to its mechanisms, 017213 could do nothing but remain still, idling all its functions to preserve its fragile battery connections to stay online.

Slash stood at the edge looking down at the ninja lying on the ground below back first. He took a moment to relish in his little victory, being his first real fight. Though a thought did cross his mind: _"Was that ninja wearing armor?"_ But he didn't loiter for long as he turned away to sniff at the air, apparently returning to his hunt. It was one turtle down, two more to go.

* * *

Unit 017213 remained on the ground, its vision crowded with static and boxes of error messages. Even its vision broke and split during several moments. Having no choice but to reconfigure, 017213 opened its cache to go through its most recent data, both from the battle and damage assessment. The damage was fairly obvious: there was damage everywhere and its overall integrity was nearly down to 50%. The robot calculated that the damage did not affect its central programming core or its ability to move, so there was a high probability of return to the Foot Clan headquarters. It did, however, go on to process the battle data collected from the larger terrapin (Slash) also found in its cache.

 **Larger terrapin is bulky in size – size significantly greater than the other four – tends to rely on brute force by use of size – exception: adept at stealth – combat style infers a form of ninjutsu training, though general pattern consists of open upper limb strikes and immediate rushing – strikes with weapon are consistently wide and slower than smaller weapons on average – note: countering terrapin's strikes solely by parrying is ineffective – speed and precision are recommended**

* * *

 _"Can't make it. Too weak. You go on without me, fellas."_

 _"No turtle left behind. That's our rule. I'm gonna tie off your sprained arm. It might hurt, okay? Bite down on this."_

 _"Ugh, it tastes like leather and sweat!"_

 _…_

 _"Mikey! Mikey, down here! I need your help."_

 _"Leo?"_

 _"Down here! Hurry!"_

 _"Am I glad you're back! You wouldn't believe it, dude! There's another turtle."_

 _"That's funny. **I ACTUALLY BELIEVED IT!** "_

* * *

Quite a while had passed but Unit 017213 still lied on its back in the alley, processing data while reconfiguring its systems. The robot did eventually finish going through all the data and went on to try and move again. Its limbs twitched for a bit, buckling from the fall damage, but managed to get back on its feet after some effort. It swayed and staggered from its legs being slightly disjointed, but it managed to regain its bearings. It made a new assessment.

 **Structural integrity at 51% and stabilizing – all systems stabilized and operating – immediate repair is recommended…data-gathering directive remains in effect: do not return to FOOT CLAN headquarters until command is received…overall damage remains at near-inhibiting levels – calculating probability of effective data maximization to be…lower – calculating potential level of strategic variation resulting from current amount of data – result: 79% – FOOT CLAN directive requires unit to gather sufficient data to reach 100% strategic variation**

The robot staggered down the dark shadows of the alleyway as it continued its calculations. It did maintain a position of walking straight; as a machine, it couldn't feel pain, so there was no real extra need to clutch any other part of itself – limbs, side, or anything. However, being able to effectively hide where the human eye could not reach was increasingly difficult. With damaged parts, getting anywhere with stealth proved almost a task in itself, so 017213 stuck to the shadows, out of the reach of streetlights and using the cover of dumpsters and brick building corners.

* * *

 _"Mikey? Oh no. Mikey! ...Still breathing. WHY? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?"_

 _"The others hold you back, limit your potential. You don't need 'em. Just. Like. You. Said!"_

 _"No! They're my brothers! I never wanted this!"_

 _"There's no turning back now!"_

 _"Stop! I won't let you hurt him!"_

 _"I'm not here to fight you."_

 _"But I wanna fight you! You're not Spike. You're some kind of warped monster: a deranged hideous freak!"_

 _…_

 _"We can make a good team, Raphael, but you're a fool, just like your brothers!"_

 _…_

 _"I spent years watching you train, learning your moves. I know everything you can do."_

 _"Not everything!"_

* * *

 **New data collected – strategic variation at 80% – new data collected – strategic variation at 81% – new data collected – strategic variation at 82%...**

Unit 017213 continued to stagger while doing its best to scan more of the environment where it stood. Its posture began to be a little more unstable with the robot putting considerable effort into staying balanced. Struggling to keep it together, 017213 tried its hardest to continue creating the required amount of data. In fact, it noted the recent inefficiency at its job as the data collection slowly rose only 1% at a time.

 **Strategic variation at 83% – estimated number of unidentified blocks in vicinity: unknown – estimated time until completion of data collection: unknown – directive to reach 100% strategic variation reasoned to ensure victory against enemies in every encounter, but despite varying outcomes, no victory has been achieved – odds of victory are favorable in a range greater than 50% or 60% – systems remain in vulnerable condition impeding the 100% outcome – in current condition, achievement of 100% may not be possible**

The robot turned back into the alley.

 **Query: Why is 100% completion required despite potentially permanent inhibiting damages?**

It looked back out into the street.

 **Query: Will 100% completion be more likely if unit prioritized repair and maintenance of operability over continued use?**

The robot looked back into the alley and then ahead to its end which branched into another pathway through the block.

 **Query: Will returning with strategic variation of collected data at 60% ensure higher chances of victory?**

It took a step forward and paused, but then began stumbling away from the streets, making its way back into the safety of the neighborhood's uninhabited areas.

 **Directive: Collect data until 100% variation achieved-[Destination: FOOT CLAN headquarters]-Directive: Collect data until order to return-[Destination: FOOT CLAN headquarters]-Directive: Collect data-[NEW Directive: return to FOOT CLAN headquarters with collected data, ensure unit survival** **– Ordered by: none]**

Unit 017213 stayed in the shadows, making its way back to headquarters.

* * *

 _"Slash, you see? That's what real friends do: they stand up for each other. I'd rather be like my brothers than you any day."_

 _…_

 _"Ha! It's over, Raphael! You've lost…A true warrior's spirit, haha! We're the same, you and me."_

 _"We are nothing alike! You're pure evil!"_

 _…_

 _"So what's with the new turtle?"_

 _"Long story. LOOK OUT!"_

 _…_

 _"Been lookin' forward to that for a long time."_

 _"That's it, it's over!"_

 _"That's it, Raph. We're not like the others! They're weak, but we're powerful. Our anger makes us strong!"_

 _"Meditate on this!"…"Aah! Spike! SPIKE! Nooo!"_

 _…_

 _"You guys alright?"_

 _"Yeah, thanks to you."_

 _"What happened to Spike?"_

 _"That was Spike!?"_

 _"Fill you in later, dude."_

 _…_

 _"He's gone. Well, he's still out there…somewhere."_

* * *

It was extremely late into the night. The streets were near-empty, quiet and deserted with almost everyone having turned in for the night. Of course, being New York – the city that never sleeps – there were still bound to be people going about on other streets, in Manhattan and beyond. Unit 017213 limped its way down an empty street that it scanned earlier for any humans that might be present. Learning that there was nobody in the area who might see, the robot was able to traverse the open space with ease.

Being able to return to headquarters while essentially abandoning its previous mission almost seemed to cause another contradiction in 017213's circuits. If it had to estimate, something like that would have certainly put its computation in another loop. In fact, 017213 somehow knew that if it were to assess and process that particular data now, it would wind up with another processing error, just like with the altercation between Karai and the Upgraded Foot Soldier during the mission regarding April O'Neil.

The robot had no more queries in its mind at this time, but without texting thoughts in its head, it somehow found its pacing slowing down a little due to some internal 'pressure.' There was something about this 'pressure' that prompted 017213 to analyze it. Inconveniently though, there was no data present regarding the pressing feeling for it to examine, let alone analyze. It did, however, pinpoint the 'pressure' coming from the power core located in its chest cavity.

Ignoring the feeling for a moment, the Footbot scanned the surrounding blocks to determine its own location to find that it was still several blocks away from headquarters. It examined its physical condition once again to find that its structural integrity remained stable and should be able to hold until returning to headquarters for repairs. It kept a note to avoid any conflicts with any other potential assailants. With nothing else, the robot continued its slow staggering down the street. That was, until it suddenly got grazed in the side by a metal pipe flying through the air.

The suddenness of getting struck by a thrown object sent 017213 tumbling to the ground once again, barely breaking its fall using its own two hands. Looking up to see the pipe lying on the asphalt in front of it, 017213 looked back to find the giant muscular terrapin (Slash) from before. He was looking a little worse for wear himself, being stained in dust and bruises from falling off the top of a building. Hunched over while panting and taking heavy breaths, he briefly put a hand to his arm before clenching both his hands into fists. He kept his eyes on the damaged robot with a hateful glare.

If 017213 was still feeling pressure in its power core, that feeling was quickly replaced with a drone, one that felt like a vibrating sensation and if it were audible, was almost akin to an old internet dialup sound. The robot found its own body tensing, its joints tightening together despite their current fragile state. Knowing that this mutant appeared to be back for more, 017213 lifted itself back off the ground and steadied itself on its two feet, facing Slash in a defensive posture.

"I'm really glad I found you," Slash growled coldly. "I thought for sure I was gonna be left to wander, thinking about my defeat." He turned to the side to tread to the sidewalk, not stepping onto it. "I was supposed to win. I was supposed be a stronger warrior! Raphael and I could have fought evil and crime together!" He remained quiet for a moment, but then he banged his fist against a lamppost, denting it. 017213 backed away slightly, but Slash didn't look back at the ninja, only looking down at nothing. "He wanted to be stronger," Slash whispered, "but he would cling to his brothers knowing they keep him from achieving that." He remained silent, but then his breathing got heavier and louder until he banged his fist into the lamppost again, denting it further. "I don't understand! I was his best friend, closer to him than his brothers, yet he chose to be my enemy!" At that point, he was smashing both fists into the lamppost, pounding it until it crumbled and fell to the ground. Slash was so livid that he didn't pay attention to the bits of shattered glass scattering across the asphalt from the lamppost's smashed bulb. After he had finished destroying the lamppost, he panted from the effort he put into punching it. He may have been tired from fighting Raphael and recovering from a fall, but he was not finished yet. He turned his attention back to the black clad ninja in front of him. "You know, for being a Foot Clan ninja, I really appreciate you listening to me." A smile slowly grew across his toothy beak and he stomped towards the ninja. "I think I need a win for tonight," Slash opened his hands, "so do me a favor," he extended his fingernails into ragged claws, "and let me KILL YOU!"

Slash charged towards 017213, but the Footbot had other ideas. When Slash was a meter away, 017213 dove to the side. Slash staggered as he barely stopped himself to turn the other way. 017213 crouched, putting a hand behind its back to reach for the tanto attached to its belt due to having lost its sword in the previous battle against Slash. Slash spun around and wildly swung his claws at the robot. 017213 barely had enough time to hop away, Slash's claws skimming the robot's black garb leaving slits. The Footbot drew out its tanto and swung to knock one of Slash's strikes away with a clang. This annoyed Slash, driving him to put his hands together into a ball and hammer it down on 017213, but the robot did a backflip, avoiding getting smashed into the pavement. 017213 landed in a defensive crouch, one hand on the pavement and the other raised behind, holding the tanto.

 **Survival of unit and collected data is top priority – Directive: Collect data-[Directive: return to FOOT CLAN headquarters with collected data, ensure unit survival]**

Slash went on to pick up the fallen lamppost and swung it at the ninja with a blade in its hand. Much of his swings were rapid like a flash, so fast that he did land a few hits on the ninja's legs. 017213 ended up getting knocked into the air a few times, keeping note of its structural integrity decreasing to 42%. Using the data on Slash it had collected from their previous battle, 017213 watched acutely as Slash did a vertical chop with the lamppost and rolled to the side accordingly. Getting even angrier, Slash swung the lamppost around and flung it at the ninja, sending it spinning in the air. 017213 jumped in the air just as the lamppost got close, spinning horizontally in the air before landing on its feet again. Upon landing, the robot spotted Slash jumping at it with a raised fist. 017213 only had enough time to throw its tanto at the raging turtle, to which Slash spotted and swung around to block the flying blade with his shell. When he landed back on his feet barely balanced, he turned around to receive a flying spin kick to the face by the black ninja. Slash staggered momentarily but immediately regained his senses, feeling more enraged than ever. He raised his right claw and thrusted it at 017213, but the robot ninja could already read his move, taking into account his fighting style, slow movement, and detecting the slight hesitation in his right arm. 017213 jumped forward, slipping its arm under Slash's right arm with a balled fist connecting to the giant turtle's beak. Slash recoiled from the strike, but having finally had enough, threw himself at his adversary, giving the ninja no time to react this time. Pinning the ninja to the ground under his two giant clawed hands, Slash was huffing and puffing with satisfaction. With a grin on his face, he proceeded to squeeze his hands together, intent on crushing the ninja to death.

 **Structural integrity at 21% – damage reaching dangerously critical levels**

017213 knew it only had so little time before the giant mutant crushed it beyond repair. Without any further calculation, the Footbot used the remainder of its energy to open its secondary pair of arms. The loud click made from doing that prompted Slash to look down to see that his ninja opponent just sprouted a second pair of arms, a spinning blade on either limb.

"What the-" he exclaimed before being interrupted by the ninja swinging its revealed blades at him, barely skimming his plastron, though that did no real harm to him. The surprise at the reveal made him claw at the air blindly until he felt his hand grab something. He clenched his hand instantly and yanked his hand back with a feeling of tearing something away. Slash looked down to find in his hand a detached limb with a blade still on it. He looked down to the limb's stump end past the torn cloth to spot several dangling wires popping with pinkish-purple sparks of electricity and a hint of a metal joint.

"It's…mechanical. That ninja's…a robot?" he muttered in bewilderment, but that made him realize he had to check on the ninja he had pinned moments before, only to find the ninja had vanished, slipped out of his grasp and nowhere in sight. Slash, now alone, let out a screeching roar at the late night sky as he threw the arm away in enraged frustration.

* * *

Simultaneously in another city block further away, Unit 017213 dashed as quickly as its remaining parts could hold it together as it approached the Foot Clan's headquarters.


	4. Jukukō

**Chapter 3: Jukukō (熟考)**

 _*Note: I'm very sorry for the long wait, everybody. I've had writer's block on this story for about over half a year now, so I couldn't figure out how I wanted to continue it. I wasn't sure if I still had the inspiration to keep writing it, since I've been busy writing different stories which I already had inspiration for. Now that this chapter's out, I hope I'm back in it again. Enjoy, and feel free to let me know what you think of it._

* * *

Baxter Stockman could not have had it worse.

After being forced into becoming the Foot Clan's full-time mechanic for the Footbots, he had the misfortune of being greeted with the diced, sliced, and smashed scraps of robot parts every night, or at least on nights where the turtles were involved. Now he would most definitely agree that he is well-versed in electronics. He found himself pretty good in the hacking department and his ability to program a flunky gadget of his design was not out of his reach; case in point, his MOUSERS.

But that was pretty much it. He was an inventor, yes, but he was not a repairman, at least not one who's so delegated to constantly rebuilding the same machine from the ground up. It didn't even matter that he wasn't building anything new right now. Repairing these bots is getting old and time-consuming; simple maintenance checkups have nothing on that. But at least he could get some satisfaction out of testing the newly repaired bots.

"Okay," the beleaguered spectacled scientist muttered, pushing up his glasses, "Unit number 017213, you're up."

Once Stockman had the robots all fixed up, he routinely activated them in order to make sure everything worked properly. Most of these checkups mainly consisted of getting these robots to move their head and limbs as instructed to ensure no physical problems and then demonstrating some moves to indicate that their ninja programming functions were working as well.

Unit 017213 was nothing special to him when it came to this procedure anyways, as every robot he had to fix had to do with the turtles in some way. When that robot came next in line for Stockman to work on, it was predictably beaten, if not torn up. Several pieces of its outer shell were battered to the point of separation. In the gaps where the plating came apart, there were sparks of pink electricity indicating its Kraang design coming from several displaced wiring. When the robot had arrived, Stockman could tell that its secondary pair of arms had also been partially extended out, dangling a bit from the gravity. But while it was technically true, the spectacled scientist could literally see only one limb that was recognizably intact. The other limb was missing, indicated by the dangling wires and pink electrical sparks flashing from the joint area surrounded by ragged edges of bent metal and ripped fabric. To be fair though, fixing that robot was not as challenging than most of the worst reassembly cases Stockman had to deal with. Aside from pushing the plating and circuitry back into their proper place, the missing secondary limb was the only real replacement in its overall repairs. Compared to getting sliced apart in more places than one, losing a limb was getting off easy, though it was still more difficult than fixing robots with just one or a few damaged internal components; that was usually the case of one of the turtles using their bladed weapons to perform a precise stabbing in a 'vital area,' so to speak. That remained one of the most minimal forms of damage sustained in battle.

"If you can hear me, blink twice," he said to the robot before him. Unit 017213 did what it was told, flashing its red-lensed eyes twice to respond to the human's request.

"Audio sensor connections: check," Stockman typed away on his monitor, his eyes fixated on the screen and keyboard. "Now move your right arm." The robot lifted its right arm to a horizontal position and bent it at the elbow while bending its wrist and fingers on its hand. "Now move your left." The robot did the same with its left arm. Continuing to type monotonously, Stockman gave further instructions. "Try walking." The robot was on its feet, moving right leg after left leg as it went around the examination area.

Stockman kept his eyes on the robot carefully and attentively. Doing tests on one robot out of several others was not new for him at this point. He just needed to make sure everything was in proper working order and check for abnormalities in its functions, like checking if one part is moving faster or slower than the other or how long it took for the robot to register a command. Then again, from what info he could glean beforehand, Unit 017213 didn't arrive back at the Foot Clan headquarters quite the same way as the others. Most of the Footbots that fell in battle with the turtles were offline and delivered in pieces, so it stands to reason that they were no different from piles of scraps being delivered at his doorstep. Number 017213, on the other hand, was observed to have made its way back to headquarters on its own. That is, Foot Clan members actually described the robot walking, or rather staggering, its way towards the front door, barely holding itself together but still online and near-perfectly functional. If anything, Stockman would've called it a survivor, coming back autonomously for repairs while not part of the inanimate pile.

"Now do a ninja move or something." Doing as it was told, Unit 017213 immediately moved to a more open area in Stockman's laboratory in order to safely perform its requested demonstration. Performing a few katas that were preinstalled in its brain as part of its programming, 017213 went through every single one of them available until it heard Stockman telling it he had seen enough, commanding the robot to stop. The Footbot ceased its movement, returning to a default standing position as every other robot had done and remained that way to await further orders.

* * *

 _1…2…3…4…_

Seconds ticked by as 017213 waited for new orders to be given.

 _9…10…11…12…_

The robot stood still, directly facing Baxter Stockman as he typed in new data.

 _21…22…23…24…25…_

Stockman moved on to doing cross-checks on the data he recorded.

 _41…42…43…_

By then, seconds had already long turned into several minutes.

 _76…77…78…79…_

Unit 017213 continued to wait for new orders.

 _98…99…100…_

Stockman reclined on his chair, having decided to take a break.

 _110…111…112…113…_

Turning and focusing its own field-of-view directly towards the exhausted scientist and then zooming in, 017213 observed him stretching his arms upward while hearing him yawn, putting one hand over the elbow of the other arm. Even when Stockman finished his break and resumed inputting the data about the robot before him into his computer, the robotic ninja still did not take its eyes off him. Standing motionlessly with its head still in the same position, staring at the man, 017213 was recording every action Stockman made, analyzing every bit of movement and even playing mock simulations within its heads-up-display. The robot visualized the simulations in primarily predicting the various directions Stockman's arms moved according to the ball joints in his shoulders. 017213 then did simulations on movements in Stockman's neck joints and then the lower half of his spinal column. From what it could gather on what Stockman was doing right now and what he would do because of his current activity, the man was of no threat. After all, he was listed in the Foot Clan registry that was installed in its database, so the robot was programmed to not deal with him as it would towards anyone specifically listed as an enemy, such as the turtles.

However, Baxter Stockman was listed in a separate category in the Foot Clan registry. While for most of the registered names, 017213 was programmed to obey any orders given by any of them, (such as Karai, Bradford, Xever, and most of all, the Shredder) Stockman was listed in a section that classified him as a "non-authority." So while he was listed as being under Foot Clan jurisdiction, he carried no authorization to issue on-field commands to the robots apart from simple instructions for the purpose of repairs, maintenance, and diagnostics.

"Next one," Stockman called out, signaling to Unit 017213 to leave the examination area and go to the side to await orders to return to either storage or a designated station. Walking away, 017213 saw other Footots just like it standing in a straight line side by side facing forward in front of one of the walls of Stockman's lab. Looking ahead in those Footbots' direction, 017213 saw a line of several other Footbots standing in single file, undoubtedly the ones that Stockman had also recently repaired and were awaiting their tests. Its time with Stockman over, 017213 continued walking towards the line standing against the wall and passed by one of Stockman's work tables. On it were a bunch of assorted laboratory-related items, particularly test tubes, flasks, and beakers.

 **Items detected on nearby table – Scanning –**

 **All items contain glass composition – detecting items of: thin + cylindrical, thin + cylindrical + bulbous, and cup-shaped**

 **Number of items present – thin + cylindrical: total 8/thin + cylindrical + bulbous: total 3/cup-shaped: total 4**

Unit 017213 had not moved since doing its analyzing scan on the glass items on the table. Even after acquiring all necessary information on what was seen, the robot still lingered on the motionless set. The sound of Stockman issuing the same test instructions to the robot after 017213 in the background did not catch its attention, even though 017213 could hear him.

 **Classification prompt – What is the purpose of the glass containers?**

Lifting both hands towards the glass containers, 017213 moved its opened hands towards a beaker and a flask and encircled the fingers of each hand around each item. Once it had secured its grip on both items, 017213 lifted them both and prepared its field-of-view to zoom in again to perform a more precise and minute analysis. But just when it did, the robot noticed cracks forming on the beaker's and flask's glass surface.

"Whoa! Hey! Hey!"

The sudden shouting of Baxter Stockman got 017213's head looking up to observe the scientist flailing his arms and jumping up and down, his line of sight pointing forward past his computer screen. Following the man's gaze, 017213 observed the robot Stockman was testing twitching and moving erratically as though it was malfunctioning. The robot swung every one of its limbs left and right, both the default and the secondary. The head was also swinging around like there was no control. Stockman was already typing on his keyboard furiously, trying to find a way to shut it down. When the robot began banging itself on the floor, Stockman jumped away from his computer desk and raced to another table, which had some kind of large two-handed gun resting on it. Grabbing the weapon, the panicking scientist held it in both his arms and heaved it in the direction of the malfunctioning Footbot. He aimed it, pulled the trigger, and out of the barrel came a steady crackling stream of pink electricity which struck the robot and instantly caused it to shut down and crumple onto the floor. 017213 focused on the downed robot's eyes, which were initially lit up behind red lenses, but then faded away as the robot deactivated.

Turning back to its own hands, 017213 looked down to find the beaker and flask it was holding gone. In fact, its hands that were once holding those items were now completely closed, balled up into fists. Underneath its fists, there were shards of shattered glass littering the edge of the table and the floor below it. From the way it looked, 017213 analyzed both the shards of glass and its balled fists and deduced that the glass pieces composed the beaker and flask it was once holding; a reassembly simulation helped confirm that. Knowing that it had tried to hold the glass containers before, 017213 connected that fact to its hands being in fists to conclude that it had somehow squeezed the containers to the point that they shattered as indicated by what remained.

 **Object classification – extremely fragile. Do not handle**

Unit 017213 turned away from the table and resumed walking towards the line of Footbots that stood against the wall. Making its way towards an open spot between two of its fellow robots, 017213 took its place and turned around, facing the same direction as the rest.

 **Entering standby – awaiting further orders from FOOT CLAN designated authority**

* * *

Baxter Stockman let out a long irate sigh as he placed the gun back on the table he picked it up from. After several hours of testing a continuous line of fixed robots, he got his first malfunctioning one for the night. He hoped in his mind that the night was still his.

"Man, I swear I checked and double-checked that one already," he whispered to himself, "but what do I know? Darn machines and their wild card tendencies. I've got too many of those already." Taking another break, Stockman decided not to go back to his computer desk.

"Maybe I'll see if I could try making another mutagen weapon again," he thought while going over to his other table which held his test tubes, flasks, beakers, and other lab equipment. "Maybe a little balloon that causes painful transformations, or a grenade that makes plant turrets, or how about a bubble-skin spray?" He chuckled while rubbing his hands together, "Oh-ho-ho, that would be so clever! Good one, Baxter! I can't wait to see the looks on those Foot chumps' faces when I – " he stopped short of his lab table when he spotted that the edge was sprinkled with glass shards and other shattered pieces of some of his containers. He noticed that some more of those pieces and shards were on the floor below the table too.

"Huh?" he said with bewilderment, peering closely at the mess on the table. "Did I do that?" he asked himself out loud. The scientist now looked around his lab for what could have caused it. "When did that happen?" he scratched his head.

There was no one around in Stockman's lab apart from Stockman himself who could answer his question. Not even the Footbots present that stood in perfect order could answer him, or at least one that had no means of doing so.


End file.
